Governor Tate Reeves issued the following statement.
Governor Tate Reeves today announced that the Delta Regional Authority has awarded a nearly $900,000 grant to the Mississippi Rural Water Association (MsRWA). This grant will support the creation of a state-of-the-art water and wastewater facility to train operators in the state. Governor Reeves authorized MsRWA to apply for this funding.
“This new facility will help provide a higher quality learning experience and improve emergency readiness for water operators throughout the state,” said Governor Tate Reeves. “Having dependable utilities is vital. This grant and the continued work of the Mississippi Rural Water Association will better ensure that our communities have the operators needed to maintain critical water and wastewater infrastructure.”
The grant will be used to help fund the construction of a $1.9 million centralized training facility in which apprentices will learn from industry experts, vendors, and regulatory authorities.
This training will ensure that communities within the Mississippi Rural Water Association will have better access to certified operators and reliable utility services.
Apprentices will have the opportunity to get paid while they learn as they spend 4,000 hours over two years gaining practical system experience from certified operators in the field. The training will include everything from plant operation to water quality analysis, and more. To complete the course, 288 hours of classroom training will also be required.
The centralized facility would locate the future operators near the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, better preparing the state for future crises. The facility would replace the current status quo in which trainings take place at community halls and other locations as available throughout the state. The new facility will provide for a higher quality learning experience and an understanding of emergency readiness for operators.
Kingfish note: The facility will be at 172 Country Place Parkway in Pearl.
21 comments:
Better late than never. Will the trainers be brought in to the area or will they be from the area? Just asking as we can't seem to draw anyone local or out of state to work our systems.
Mayor Gumflapper raises hell that it isn’t located in Jackson …in 5..4..3..2..1…
Is Jackson "rural"?
That's a good thing. That's a really good thing. Should be a hellava lot more. Chockway Loopybamba could send his entire crew to get training.
The problem is that they don't hire anyone who will stay very long and most that they hire can't or won't finish the course to be certified. Part of the problem is they are only paying $14 an hour when it takes $18-25 at a minimum for competent people. These associations need to bump their rates and hire dependable people.
@10:51…concur. You get what you pay for. I can’t help but to think Mayor Lamumbalot’s strategy is to not hire ANYONE in City departments, run it to failure, and cite racism as the cause while waiting for the State or Feds to pay for remediation using his cronies as middleman contractors.
The entirety of the landmass between Louisiana and Alabama (aka Mississippi) is considered a rural shithole. So Jackson has full access to this.
10:51:
Choke is cheap and a real shit for leadership, so he only draws flies. Legislature's new water association that takes over the Jackson Water and Sewer (presuming Gov signs bill) after Henifin has blown his wad will pay better and be more professional than Lil Choke.
I manage a water/sewer utility. I will address a few things:
The Mississippi Rural Water Association does a great job of training operators. However, that doesn't include just operators of rural water associations. Most municipalities are members of MSRWA so that their operators can get their CE hours annually. They are training operators for rural water associations, cities, utility districts, etc. They do a good job.
@10:51 you are correct that many of the systems don't pay well. Admittedly the cost of living varies widely throughout Mississippi, and that can play a part. And Mississippi has about 1100 water systems. Many of those systems are small (less than 500 meters). Bigger systems do pay much better. I assure you that I don't have any operators making less than $25 per hour.
@12:24 has paid close attention and knows exactly how it works in Jackson. You've hit the nail on the head. Fixing a problem takes work, time, effort, skill, and attention. It's much easier to simply kick your feet up on your desk and let everything fall apart. Then you scream racism and get $1 billion from Uncle Sugar.
1:10 – I'd be careful. Informed opinions can get you into trouble around here.
Key word:feds
But, Tate wants the credit.
No surprise there.
9:53 AM
If you could reclassify a lot of West jackson as county then you could claim it is rural.
Great, more inflation.
@1:10 You are correct but to many operators devalue the work they do and try to help the community, and that drives the price down. Many people see the guy or girl that treats your water as leak fixer and meter reader, have no idea of the chemistry and pathogens that they deal with daily.
Will this training facility have a volley ball court?
The bipolar blog-radar-operator is on duty today.
All federal funds are ultimately borrowed from the Chicoms. What could go wrong? National debt, debt ceiling, keep kicking that can down the road.
As I’ve said before, thank you again JJ for you’re creating such a valuable variable aperture into local society and politics.
Kudos to 1:10 for providing perspective (though I take everything here with a grain of salt).
As said earlier, everybody and his brother is involved in 'workforce training', even a convicted-felon attorney.
Our statewide system of Community and Junior colleges, in conjunction with ramped-up high school career and technical education programs, should be properly funded and viewed as having the lead role in this effort.
100 weeks at 40 hours per week is outrageous. You can become an airplane pilot with a Phd in Microbiology in less time than that.
@4:07 that is a good point. Most operators do other work for the utility. That is because operating a well system doesn't take as much time as operating a surface treatment system. And most utilities in Mississippi use wells drilled into the aquifer. A water well doesn't require that an "operator be present at all times". So my operators know how to set meters, fix leaks, operate equipment, etc. That just makes them more valuable in my eyes. Our wells do have to be checked daily. The operator has to change chlorine, and deal with many other issues such as soda ash. And then there is the paperwork and sampling. Wells are expensive and an operator can notice minor issues before they become huge problems, and therefore save you a lot of money.
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